A Belated Valentine’s Day Story, and an Announcement!

Sorry I’m late unveiling the promised Valentine’s Day adventure for Beaumont and Beasley…or is it Beaumont and Locke?

This is the happiest day of Lady Cordelia Beaumont’s life. The man she loves has finally asked her to marry him.

Yet something doesn’t seem right. Is Robin Locke IV truly the one to whom she has pledged her heart? Is Nick Beasley really supposed to be in love with someone else? And what do magical cabbages have to do with it all?

This is just a goofy little story of about 4,000 words. (Minor spoilers for The Stroke of Eleven–you have been warned!) It involves Shakespearean elements–a first for me–as well as a rather obscure fairy tale called “Donkey Cabbages.” The whole thing rose out of a joking conversation on Twitter about what would happen if Nick were dosed with a love potion. Which goes to show you that random, seemingly innocent comments on social media can end up placing fictional characters in all kinds of ridiculous conundrums. Tweet wisely.

Speaking of goofy little stories, I have an exciting announcement! For the very first time in my writing career, one of my short works is going to be featured in an anthology!

How to Catch a Unicorn is a mini-anthology of stories offering humorous and gently-satirical takes on common romantic tropes in sci-fi, fantasy, and paranormal romance. I don’t think I’m allowed to reveal all the authors involved just yet, but I can tell you that one of them is the amazing H.L. Burke. In addition to contributing a story (which I haven’t read yet, but which sounds utterly hilarious), she’s one of the people in charge of getting the anthology compiled and published. I’m very grateful to her for inviting me to be a part of this project.

Which portion of speculative fiction will I be tackling in my story? Need you ask? 😀 “Retold” is a loving parody of both fairy tales and fairy-tale retellings. It’s not set in the Afterverse, though it does involve some Beauty-and-the-Beast elements. I’m having a great time working on it, and I hope you all enjoy it.

How to Catch a Unicorn will be available on April 1st, so keep an eye out for it! (And don’t just dismiss it as an April Fool’s Joke. It’s real.)

*is late because I was away over the weekend* Oh my goodness! This story was hilarious! XDDD LOVED IT! Thanks for sharing! 😀 (I totally called it on who Robin was — BOTH times! ;)) And how cool that you’ll be in a collection — sounds fun!

Well well, we were joking that there keep being Beaumont and Beasley holiday short stories (like for Halloween… and Christmas… and Valentine’s Day…) and so we were joking the next one would be for St. Patrick’s Day with leprechauns. XD

ANYWAY, this made me miss the characters EVEN MORE so yeah. But I loved it. 😀

I’m so happy you liked it!! Thank you! I had a feeling you would catch the Robin references. XD I’d actually like to do more with Robin in future; I have a mythology in mind behind the pookas and how he created them. Good way to give Bryn some backstory. I’m really excited about my story for the collection; I had a blast writing it.

Leprechauns…THAT IS BRILLIANT. Thank you! This must happen. I will definitely do it. 😀

Writing this one made me miss the characters too, LOL. I’ve been knee-deep in Horseman edits lately (preparatory to *finally* sending the manuscript your way), and it’s been great reconnecting with the Crockett and Crane gang, but I’m eager to dive deep into B&B Book 4 now. First I have an important Malcolm thing to write, though, which will be fun. And I’m also outlining C&C Book 2, which I hope to start posting on Wattpad before the end of the month.

YAY! So happy to hear about all the awesome writing things. 😀 All the Afterverse things make me happy. Good luck with all of those! “An important Malcolm thing to write” sounds glorious — but of course, everything to do with him is important. 😉

No pressure but … will it ever be listed on Goodreads so readers can pad their Goodread’s challenges with an extra book?
Asking for a friend. (it may be there already, but I don’t think Goodreads is great as a search engine and I couldn’t find it)